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Topic: Oil Painting QnA (Read 15421 times)

Nolan - One [of many] things I struggle with is making cast shadows correctly. I know that to get the cast shadow you add the opposite on the colour wheel. But what if the cast shadow falls on different colour surfaces, eg say a nice large tree, casting a shadow on the grass, then onto a white fence, and then onto a tarmac road. Do you use just one shadow colour, or three, because it sounds to me as if it would look odd. Help please

Maryna don't feel bad. I still have that same problem sometimes. And I have been painting for while. Like Lillian says it takes experience. We will get it.I guess we have to take those rose colored glasses off. Happy painting Maryna.Nina

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Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the ground each morning, the devil says. "OH NO, SHES UP!"

I have struggled with getting colours right for a number of years. This is what I found helps-get the colours out that you are using. Mix up all the colours on the colour wheel. Add white to all of them and do gradations from pastel to full chroma. Mix up greys using all the complementaries. All the paint companies have different biases with their paints, and it helps to know that your paint is more red or blue than what perhaps Nolan's is. This allows you to adjust it to what you want/need (ie a little more red or blue). Knowledge is power, and you only get that through practice, practice, practice-that is the plain truth. But know that we are all struggling with colour-even those who are you might consider experts. I feel a lot more confident that a few years ago, but I think I will always want more colour knowledge-paintings that are successful colour studies are visible a mile away.

Another aspect that you might have to take into consideration is that if you are trying to match the colour mixtures of someone else you should be using not only the same colour name but also the same pigment and preferably the same manufacturer.

This is due to different manufacturers being free to use different pigments and different manufactuing methods to produce their colours, specially 'convenience' colours which tend to be less standardised than others like raw sienna, burnt umber, etc.

If you have a look at www.handprint.com you will see the huge amount of differences amongst manufacturers and their paints.

Hi Nolan. Another area I am struggling with is with painting a wooden bowl. Having watched the video several times I have painted several wood chopping boards and have been reasonably satisfied with the results, But when I try to use that knowledge to paint a rounded wooden bowl I seem to have something of a mental block, because it just doesn't work for me. Hope you can help.

Nolan, when blending acrylics, do you use the 'cross stroke' and scrub the colors together? Also, do you use white to lighten in acrylics? (I'm taking w/c at the moment.)Don't worry, by the middle of the class, I'll probably have more questions! LOL

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I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination. Jimmy Dean